Mhm. >> Okay, I think we're ready. We'll start by calling the Tuesday, May 19th School Board Business Meeting to order, and we'll start off with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance if you choose. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everybody. Start off with uh entertaining a motion to approve our agenda with our suggested motions and resolutions. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Ms. Jones. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Anna. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes. On our agenda, we have jump right into our Superintendent's Report. Dr. Lewis, it's all yours. Thank you, Chair. I am going to call up Dr. Amy Cochran, our Senior Officer of Academics and Innovation, and as she is coming up, I will introduce this item. This is our 25-26 calendar adjustment. Yes, this is this school year's calendar adjustment. If you recall, um right before I arrived, um effective July 1, 2023, is when the READ Act uh legislation went through. As a result of the READ Act legislation, there was required professional development days that were needing to be adjusted into the calendars. And for Frisco ISD, calendars are set 2 years in advance, and then adjustments are made. We do a process very similar to what many other districts do, where we have our teachers working alongside um of district staff led by now um Dr. Cochran. She did not lead um until this year from the district side, but it's really a collaborative process where uh the team sits down and designs the calendar. As a result of the Reed Act and the professional development, there was a clerical error that occurred. Our FEA partners were um designing the calendar in the future and noticed that there was a clerical clerical error in this year's calendar. So, we brought it forward as quickly as possible for adjustment. It's just an unforeseen circumstance that it would be brought forward here in May effective for this calendar year. So, with that, I'm going to have Dr. Cochran talk with the specificity with you on those items. Dr. Cochran, I probably took some of yours from there, but just feel free to repeat or build on that. >> Yeah, absolutely. Am I Am I on? Okay, perfect. All right, that's okay. Thanks for having me. I know, so [clears throat] as Dr. Lewis explained that ultimately we discovered an error as we were creating We're working 2 years out, so we're working on the '27-'28 calendar and noticed that there was an error that we have identified as was a result of the Reed Act, which we needed to add the two professional learning days. So, after we identified the issue, we worked closely again our FEA partners are in all of our calendar committee um process. We've worked with them to find a solution, and essentially we have a proposal that we would move the final day of school forward by 2 days, which would ultimately um be able to fix the number of teacher work days. So, our teacher contract calls for 185 working days and currently right now as it sits, they're working 187 days. So, we are proposing that the final day of school for pre-K through 11th grade students be moved to Monday, June 8th. So, what that would look like, seniors graduate still on Friday, June 5th. So, that would still be their last day. For everyone else, pre-K through 11th grade, Monday, June 8th would now be the final day of school. Tuesday, June 9th would now be staff development day, which was originally 2 days later. And then Wednesday, June 10th would be an evaluation and planning day, which would then leave the 11th and the 12th of June as non-work days and non-school days. So, we understand these changes can be really difficult for families this late. So, as soon as we noticed the error, we wanted to bring it forward so that we can get this notice out as soon as possible for our families. And also, people may wonder, why are we ending school on a Monday? Because it's a little tricky for students to have to come back on a Monday, but we also do need to make sure we're meeting the minimum requirements as required by the state of Minnesota. So, we do need to come back to school for that Monday. Awesome. Any questions? Yeah. Are there I'm sure that there were a lot of considerations that went into this and with the team, are you able to like share any of what that looked like with us in that process that you worked through? Yes, we originally kind of came up with like four different options as we were like, what could we do about this? Again, I think one of one question is we've had a few days this year that we were closed due to ice metro surge. We had a day that we were closed due to inclement weather. But ultimately, teachers are asked on those days to still be available and so we couldn't just count those as non as non-work days. Some of the other proposals was thinking about the Friday, the Monday before and after Um Memorial Day, which is coming up this weekend. And ultimately, we knew that you know, tonight is May 19th and to tell families that we wouldn't have school on a Friday and a Monday was really short notice. And so ultimately, we just kind of came up with what would be the best option in order to give families the most notice that we could. One key piece that we have is our um essentially our kindergarten through fourth-grade teachers, all of our special education teachers, our reading teachers, they also are participating in letters training. That letters training has been scheduled for well over a year right now currently for June 11th. And thank you so much, Alexia Learning was willing to enable to move the date for us. So we're able to slide that forward by 2 days if we're able to approve it. And I'm sure that there's lots of I mean, thinking about like family planning, I still appreciate that. I'm sure also there's lots of like building and staff and the end of the year and we're doing this kind of planning. Does that What does that look like for our staff additionally? I really appreciate like thoughtfulness to the families. 100%. I think like some of the big things, I know we have an eighth-grade field trip. We have some things coming up in the different the different buildings. So we've trying to work with principals around what can we move so that we are the least disruptive to students so that they can still participate in anything that they currently had planned. Our FIA board again has been wonderful in really being able to kind of lead that work in their buildings. Yeah. Yeah, thanks. Assuming it gets passed, how soon will the parents be notified? Tonight. So we have the staff and parent letter ready to go as soon as if it's approved, we'll send out the communication today. So. So I think maybe I I was just going to ask before I make closing comments on this, I was going to actually share >> [sighs and gasps] >> ask the board to consider voting on this now because Lori is going to push um send and that gives our families even more notice. So, it'll go to staff and then to families translated and she will do that while I update it on SOD if board is willing to adjust. I'm on the on the same sheet of music there. So, Appreciate that. >> Um any other questions for Dr. Cochran? No. With that I would certainly entertain a motion um to adjust the calendar essentially. Have a motion? So moved. Ms. Shriner? Second. Second. Second by Jones. Uh this is a roll call vote. Ms. Anna? Aye. Ms. Jones? Mr. Carnes passes. Ms. Shriner? Aye. Ms. Yang? Aye. Ms. Shobe? Aye. Mr. Ba? Aye. Motion passes. Lori hit the button. >> [laughter] >> Thank you so much chair. Um Dr. Cochran uh our FEA partners in the room, is Phil here? Ms. Grawkey, good to see you my dear. Um thank you for the collaboration on this and I appreciate that we can just be transparent with our community. In the spirit of transparency, um we do have an error in the 2026-2027 calendar. We will be bringing that forward in June. Little easier to adjust um now as well. I was [snorts] asked about the 2024-2025 calendar and we were not in a situation where teachers worked uh above their contractual days. So, that was good um but we did do diligence at the suggestion of a school board member. Thank you for that um to do that count. I will also say um that other units such as paraeducators um student nutrition services, our all employees are going to be held harmless. So, they are not getting a reduction in days for pay. That's just number one, not the right thing to do and number two, it was built into our finances in the fur- further spirit of transparency, if we were to stick through Wednesday, that would have been an additional $250,000 that was unbudgeted to pay um for our teacher salaries and benefits for those two days. So, this was the best solution under kind of um some options that weren't None of these were really great, but um I'm proud of the way the team worked through the suggestions. For sure. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Lisa. Thank you. Um School board members, I have debated about this module quite a bit, and you probably have noticed this. So, when I did the first module, which was in February, and if you remember, I have the recordings, right? That have that in the recordings are very similar to the SOD modules, but like when people present multiple times um on the same content, sometimes that changes a little bit. So, what you are noticing is that I am not changing the slides on the SOD modules, um but you'll hear me talk a little bit about some changes. For example, you heard me last time talk about, and this was not factoring in the student enrollment decline because of ICE Metro surge. So, you're going to hear that probably more tonight than you have heard it in other presentations presentations on this, and this is directly tied to compensatory aid dollars. Compensatory aid dollars wasn't mentioned in the recorded uh modules of SOD. You did, however, hear me when I was testifying on or speaking at press conferences or talking to the media, I would tie in, please remember, our enrollment decline because of ICE Metro surge is also on top of, at the time, I would say the uncertainty around compensatory aid dollars. Effective late Sunday evening, I now know what that certainty is around compensatory aid. So, you'll hear that referenced when you wouldn't hear that on the SOD module that's pre-recorded. Um as we work on our SOD plan um with Minnesota Department of Education, as you know, they are a partner in this with us and an overseer. Total reduction year one was targeted at 2.2 million dollars. We have 960,000 dollar reduction in our compensatory aid dollars from uh this school year to next school year. So, what happened? We were very vocal not only in these meetings, uh we were also very local or um very vocal with testifying and with our elected officials about the impacts if there wasn't a hold harmless that went into effect for compensatory aid. If you recall last year, the governor actually put in the hold harmless and the hold harmless from a true standpoint literally held us harmless. This year, there was 10 million dollars appropriated. Um it was based on forms. I'm also going to talk about this later in this slide deck, uh the superintendent update and I just I can't emphasize the compensatory aid dollars enough here and how this [snorts] is all impacting. Um so, the formula was 66.5% of the hold harmless of a 10 million dollar appropriation. Then for next year there's a 1 million dollar appropriation for all the districts and charter schools around that. Um and what I will also do is we are going to link in the district runs that you all received in the update from me today. We will link in the district runs so that you can see Fridley and all charter schools and public school systems in the state of Minnesota and you can see what those runs look like. So that will be updated on Lori, I think we'll put it on the finance update slide. So that $2.2 million is That is before we factored in the million dollar reduction in revenue for compensatory aid. >> [sighs] >> I um am proposing different staffing reductions. Those will come out more obviously to have notice on Sunday evening to bring those to you today to have told our staff members about that is unfair. Um [snorts] work that we will continue to do. I used to call it SOD reductions. Uh Assistant Superintendent Cox today said to me, "Brenda, let's just call them compensatory and SOD reductions." So we're just I'm not going to try to separate the 960,000. That was really wisdom-filled um from Rochelle. Um so you will have more on these different roles. I do want to focus on here. I continue to remain focused on classroom teachers at our current ratios. Special Ed services, I want to remind you what the reality was when I came here in Fridley Public Schools around teachers and staff receiving head injuries, work comp claims, teachers and staff getting hurt. I was personally severely injured this fall. We have to fully to staff our programs. Otherwise, we further harm children and staff that choose our district every day. And Fridley is a very complex district. I will work to protect as I have these 3 years and I continue to stay committed to that. Our student safety positions with respect to Vista, we are not reducing. Our federal setting for programming, we will continue to expand around that. Our essential student support counselors, nurses, and social workers. I also [snorts] want to address around our federal setting for programming. Next year will be our third year. We have had one instance where a child has gone from the co-located Fridley High School Vis- Fridley Secondary Vista program into our high school. There was no interaction with any students. No staff members were touched in that situation. That happened one time. And we have taken precautions on those pieces. It had to do with the door egress. So, we have a 15-second delay. Our children are brilliant and we love their brilliance. And our sweetie is one of the students that I mentor. I'm going to take credit for this. He knew how to time our egress, so he hit the door and he knew to get back there in 15 seconds and he got out. I don't know if that's because of my mentoring, but >> [laughter] >> he knew how to do that. Now, we have put in additional pieces, right? We aren't perfect in our setting for programming. We aren't, but we are really working to to that we respond when we have those and we are more proactive each time. I also want to talk about with respect to charges. A school district actually can't determine charges on a student unless there's something like a property damage where we are actually the victim of that. So, I wanted to just share with you that the district isn't in a position to determine whether criminal charges are pursued. We are in the area of school safety and disciplinary process. Also, as a reminder, children served on an IEP have by law different standards that we have to follow. We fully cooperate with law enforcement investigation, but we do not determine whether charges are filed. That comes from law enforcement. The other piece that I wanted to share is staff members can choose to file charges if they wish. So, I wanted to address that piece as well. Continuing to hold firm here, team, on our student support counselors, nurses, and social workers. I think you can understand my tone there. This Sunday night end of the session really hurt my feelings. So, trying to stay professional here while still having the emotions. As we go on to service contract reviews, um uh developing out our RFP process for competitive pricing. Uh reference to CESO contracts. As you can recall, school board, we were unhappy with the CESO uh contract. So, I asked for the HR contract to be terminated October 31st, 2024, and that was done. The school district has not had CESO under contract for HR since October 31st, 2024. The school [snorts] district ended our relationship with CEE so finance on June 30th, 2025 because we were unhappy with the service. We have two different transportation wings in our school system. We have Northwest Suburban routes. So, that's all children that are through uh the Northwest Suburban Integration School District, the six districts plus Fridley. So, students that choose to open enroll through Northwest Suburban into our district and students who choose to enroll into a Northwest Suburban District that are resident students of ours, that transportation cost is reimbursed to the school system. We're thinking 2 years in arrears. We're still getting to the bottom of that piece, but Northwest Suburban contracts out with CEE so on those pieces. Last year, if we you recall, we also ended our CEE so transportation contract on June 30th, 2025. We had hired uh individual to oversee our transportation in April with a window to learn and as I had informed the board in July, that individual um had had many areas where we were unhappy with performance to end with a transportation person in July to then turn around with someone that isn't completely familiar with our district, we did enter back in with CEE so transportation. So, we contract with CEE so transportation currently and no other parts of CEE so. So, that um talks about those finance services. Legal services, continuing to just work on that um piece as well. And this comes down to also billing and how we look at that. So, if it's legal services needed for community ed, then that needs to be coded properly to community education. If it's legal services associated, there's some allowable under special education setting three and down, then [snorts] we appropriately code to that. If it's legal services that are for setting four, that's a completely different process. And when I talk about legal services, what I mean on that is like school district legal attorney fees. And I also talk about immigration fees through our attorney. And those the bulk of individuals that we sponsor through either the H-1B program, which brings us teachers, as well as exclusively the H3 program, which brings us special education um 18-month visa on special education trainee um that then serves also as a grow-your-own pathway into getting us teachers, which also helps us um I don't know if the federal government is tuning in, but that helps us to not pay the $100,000 fee that was instituted in late September um so that H3 then serves as a feeder into our H-1Bs more so now than it did in years past because of that $100,000 fees. So, that then gets billed to special education through either setting four tuition agreements and or through state special ed reimbursable. So, those are just pieces. It's not just legal fees. It's also making sure that we code those properly and correctly. Um Lori and team are looking at our technology, same with our curriculum team, Amy and team. Um what are those um vendor uh vendors that we have and what are the usage rates during COVID and other times our district along with others heavily used Google Voice. Now there's other tools available. So we're looking at is Google Voice the best use of our district dollars? Do we need to just look at certain staff that needs that? So those are ongoing conversations that we're having. And then our professional development really continuing to look at how do we have that high impact PD? Then this is not new. Again, [snorts] fixing the coding issues and the operational efficiencies. We've talked about this. Also Rochelle has brought up to around energy efficiency. The school district had solar panels. We were not collecting revenue on those solar panels. So now we are in a position where we are collecting revenue on those. And then our action plan summary here talks about um our reductions. Again, I want to speak to the fact that this was designed by me in late January, I believe, early February. And 2.2 million is before we knew the true realities. And I don't know that we know the true realities yet of the enrollment with ice metro surge. And it certainly was before the million dollar deduct in compensatory Board, I'm going to pause on this and see if you have any questions around this particular model. As a reminder on the school board web page is listed the one-pager that has all of these linked in in recordings. Any questions? No. Yes, sir. >> Okay, did you get them sent? Oh, yeah. Good. See, look at our timing. Right? Okay, so I'm going to turn it over to Lori to start with our finance update. And then I just need a moment to confer. Other than Combed, was I going to say anything else I think I actually hit it already in the SOD model. So, Lori's going to give the audit. I actually put a lot more into Combed >> [snorts] >> than I was actually planning to. I am going to end with explaining to you why we have the reduction and why I'm not done with this fight. How is that to turn it over? That was awesome. Lori's like, "Now the audit items." >> [laughter] >> Follow that girl. Um so, a quick update on our audit. Uh we um decided as a team, I think it was actually Rochelle's idea, but we um held a joint meeting with our MDE partners that are going to partner with us on our SOD plan along with our audit lead Janelle um so that everybody was on the same page. We had a meeting um just this week. Uh the audit team feels we're done with revenues, taxes, and state and federal receivables, which is good. And our focus now continues on to capital projects, cash, cash, and bank reconciliations. So, slowly but surely we're getting through it. We get questions, we answer them, we get four more questions back. So, I'm hoping the end is near. Aren't we all? >> [laughter] >> Um sorry, that wasn't That was just your superintendent being raw there. Um there's a special guest across the hallway that just texted me. So, I asked the special guest to poke their head in, so they might poke their head back in. I didn't see the special guest. Um, she's here for a different meeting. So, um Can you come out for a second? So, we have our amazing Senator Kounalakis, who is such an advocate for all things compensatory Ed. She tried to get one-time funding for the districts that were critically impacted by ice. She is always talking about the impact. She always always elevates our students and our staff. You're just amazing, and your timing is brilliant, and I personally can't thank you enough. Thank you very We love you. Thank you. You are the true advocate. It's um It's just kind of fun being here. I'm in a meeting next door about this group, and heard Brenda's voice, and poked my head in for a minute, but I just wanted to say thank you to Fredly for all all the work that you did to protect our students in the community during a really, really super trying time. Nothing we could have ever imagined in our lifetime. And you know, I want you to know I was out there every morning at different schools, patrolling, watching, trying to keep an eye on things. And you know, because of that I was able to take some really good information to the capital when people were kind of discounting or dismissing that that the things that really happened ever happened. And I could say, you just because you were not there doesn't mean they didn't happen. And so, thank you, superintendent. Thank you to the community and all of you that worked so hard to protect our kids and our families, but also teachers and the the administration and hourly workers and the parents and the community members that stepped up to you know, just meet those social emotional and just everyday needs for our families to keep them going. Um, it was really incredible and sometimes I get out and about and when I tell people I'm from Minnesota, um, they're just like, "Oh my god, we bow to you. We bow to you." The the work that was done and the way that um, we all came together in an instant like that was was pretty miraculous. So, just want to wish you all hoping had somebody that came in and testified with us. Well, this is what it was like. Um, but uh, I just want to wish you all the best as the last few weeks of school. Um, and I I'm not sure how your testing set season went. Um, but I hope that went all right and that's never an easy thing. I was a teacher for 25 years and 15 of those I was the testing administrator. So, uh, very very tuned into what the testing world is like. Um, and so appreciate all of those folks that try to do their best to make the best environment for our students but then, um, make sure that they have a good end of the school year. So, thank you all very very much. Oh, thank you. Oh, from the bottom of our hearts. Very proud. Very proud to represent the communities that I represent. So, thank you all very much. >> Thank you, Senator. Thank you so much. Um, the month of May in public education >> is mixed emotion and the universe knew we needed that. So, there we go. Um, what I am going to say on the compensatory ed is why it changed. Board, I apologize that this is redundant for you. Um Before the old process was that districts receive compensatory aid dollars a year in arrears as well as on their funding based on the percent of students that qualified for free and reduced lunch via forms. So, families would fill out a form. Then, during COVID Minnesota said, "Hey, we'll also do direct certification." So, families that are served by um Medicaid, SNAP, and other benefits have what's called direct certification, or as we call it for short, direct cert. So, then they don't fill out the forms. So, for a while school districts were able to count both form submissions as well as direct cert. Obviously, if one family filled out the form who's also direct cert, that would clearly only count for their one student. Now, what has happened is the forms have gone away, and some school systems are and I hesitate to use the word winners, but in the math factual sense, when I say winners means that the hold harmless benefited them two increases. When you look at um those that are losers, you can see that piece. In Minnesota poverty tends to be higher in districts that have higher percent of children of color. That's what the facts show you, the data shows you. I would ask you to look at those district runs again, which I gave you, and I would ask you to look at district demographics and to look at the winners and the losers. And so now only direct certification counts, which is why we are losing $960,000. Districts that are demographically, racially similar to us are losing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. So that is a factor of why we have been lobbying and lobbying and lobbying and lobbying and telling our story. Something has to change around this critical funding structure. It has to change. Um so we will continue working with this. Um we have some real friends in our elected officials that rep our area. We need to get some bipartisan togetherness around compensatory education. You all know that for at least space is front and center on that along with a few other districts. It is the heavily uh black and brown districts that are the ones consistently advocating for this. Um so there's work being done. Um but it obviously is impacting many districts that are very similar to ours in a very very damaging manner. More to come at the next meeting on this. I will bring other budget reductions forward. However, I did want to share um we have our schools advocating for fair funding. That membership is based on the number of students. $4,370 was our annual membership this year. I um putting that down as a budget reduction. We can get our advocacy work in through AMSD, MASA, MSBA, and frankly, I think we advocate very well for ourselves. So, there we go. And then, um most of the districts, excuse me, all of the districts and staff don't look like us. So, that's been a struggle as well. And, um >> [clears throat] >> I'm going to pause here. Treasurer Anna, if there's anything you want to say on this that I didn't already say, she and I already talked about those. Okay. And then, um I am a Rotarian. It's fantastic to be a part of that group. Unfortunately, this is another, um piece where I'm going to notify them that I have to forego my membership because of the significant budgetary concerns that we have in our district, and I'm trying every place to grab, um to not have it directly impact students, and the Rotary, my membership [clears throat] in the Rotary doesn't directly impact students. Moving on to our legislative update. >> I could. Oh, I'm sorry. Would it Would it be safe to assume that, um some of those Rotary's functions you'll probably still be invited back to? >> Yeah, my hope is that. I also would be open if the Rotary wanted to sponsor us, or we could host their meetings. >> Sure. in lieu of my membership. Thank you for that good point. The next piece is the legislative update. Goodness, I don't think I need to give any more. Anything I missed on that? >> literally just had one. >> [laughter] >> My apologies. That's such a cute slide, too. We can still look at the slide. Okay, fair. [laughter] We'll leave this slide for a minute. Okay, yay. Some good news. You're ready? So proud of you. Construction walk-through. >> [laughter] >> You know, I'd love to take you all on a tour of what's happening in construction, and that is always, um an invitation to all, but in lieu of that, we have some pictures to show. Um you can see our FCC playground is coming along just beautifully. One thing that just really struck me about the this picture these pictures was you look at just the ground covering and students have three different sensory experiences that you see. You see that that blue soft really um spongy kind of um safe uh ground covering. You see the concrete the hard that's really good for those um gross motor skills and then the sand is one. You see sunshine. You see um Thanks. You see the um shade. So, this playground is offering our students so many opportunities to do that outdoor play and also incorporate all of our IB work um into that playground setting. You can also see in the right hand picture we have some new seating available for the adults and for the students. So, they they can enjoy that being active or if they want to sit for a moment if they get a little hot once it does actually turn summer which should be hopefully soon um they can have a seat too in the shade as you can see there too. Um next slide we're going to go to our middle school and the pool. Wow, what it's I think it's been 3 weeks and it is coming along. So, you can see here that um we have uh walls being stripped um doors are being removed. Um door frames are being um ins- um installed um in the pool area. We're making a lot of progress on the pool topping, gutter installation, and trench drain work. Don't ask me too many questions about that, but um drainage is good in a pool area. Um wall construction continues in both the pool as well as the shower areas. Um we're going to continue work on stainless steel installation in the pool area and the electrical rough in work is ongoing um as we move forward. So, things are just continue to progress really well in our pool area. And then base on the baseball and soft um softball, we just want to show you our new um scoreboard has been installed. Electricity is happening in our dugouts and batting cages and equipment is right um and then um so you can see there you have really nice shot um which is another shout out to our sponsors um who really are making things um possible as we're as we're moving through this renovation. We appreciate their support of our sports. And then finally, I don't have I'm sorry. Yes, please. Can you please tell me who's pictures these are? Oh, the um the fencing pictures of the sponsors. Super talented artist. Nice. I just would like that note. Well, I mean if you're looking for some more kudos, I believe you took those pictures during the senior night in which you threw out the first first pitch. And how did I do? Yeah, I think you threw a strike. >> [snorts] >> I'm just saying. Good, right? And I thought my outfit looked like a pitcher. The Nike leggings and my cute Yep, you look exactly like a major league pitcher. gold um shoes and then my cute little Fridley hoodie. Yeah, nice. And I I I do want to comment though to during that night, we had um like hot dogs and stuff for for everyone including the visiting team. We had several people from the visiting team come over and say this is fantastic. We wish we had this in our I won't say the school district, but they they were super complimentary. They thought the programming was great. They thought the fields looking great. So, there's definitely some envy in our Tri-Metro conference of our baseball and softball fields. It's about time for Fridley. Um, you can see to our branding, black fence, uh yellow toppers. You'll see this as we do all of our construction as we move forward. And I don't have a picture of this, but equipment has moved into our stadium. So, as you look at that athletic field, things are going to start moving real fast out there, too. So, just a quick update for you all about construction. Look forward to another one in June. This is also about district standards, too. So, the stainless steel fences, they get rusty and worn out. Not only is the black part of our school district colors, but it's actually vinyl coated, so it extends the life of your fencing. We've also cut down on manual labor costs with mow stripping, which is concrete stripping that's poured before the fence is installed, and then the lawn mower tire can go right up on top, and we're not dealing with um, trimming of those and extra time that is put into that, and frankly, it's safer. We don't have rodents in those areas of overgrowth, and it just looks really nice. So, I'm really proud of how that looks. It also looks very similar. You'll see the same types of pieces over at Commons Park, too. So, it's nice even though we're two separate entities, it's kind of cool to see that bleed over into two different entities in the same city. The other piece I wanted to comment on is, as a reminder, when I started, we were talking about if we can secure the funds, and this is directly because the second question of the successful passage of our November 2024 referendum campaign when we did the levy, and then we did the second question, the $30 million bond exchange with no impact to taxpayers. That's because our voters said, "We believe in this." And now we are showing them what they have believed in. And when I hear Chair Karnopp say other districts are complimentary, that hasn't always been the case. So, our students deserve this, our staff deserves this, and our community deserves places that we can be proud of, and I'm very proud to see this coming to fruition. Staff Appreciation Week was the first week in May, so fun. Um, thank you to board members that came too, and we are just able to um serve ice cream to our staff members, and it's just fun to see them and talk to them and interact with them. Like I said, here as I came back to the chair, uh May is a mixed emotion month in public education, so that's a little pick-me-up that we can bring. I do have a little funny thing that um I actually don't care for ice cream, but um staff will say to me like, "Is it okay if I get two scoops or two bowls?" I'm like, "I'm not counting." So, I love that people just want to come, and then they're like, "Can I eat this before lunch?" And I'm like, "That is great." So, it's just nice that people seek permission from the superintendent on the order of their ice cream and the volume. So, yes, and we've never run out yet. >> [gasps and laughter] >> And thank you to cabinet members for serving, too. This is so proud, such a proud moment. So, our um Fridley adapted bowling team competed at the state tournament, I believe two Fridays ago. Um Elijah and Josh, our seventh grader and our 11th grader. So, Elijah, state champion as a seventh grader. >> [applause] >> Yes. I think we'll try to bring them in person to celebrate them, too, at the fall the spring sports recap. And then Josh, 11th grade, tied for fourth place in his category. So, we are so proud of Elijah, Josh, and the entire team for representing Fridley with determination, sportsmanship, and heart. Some of you know that um my brother who passed away in 2017, 4 years younger than me, um highly highly highly um disabled, and he was a uh state I don't know if he was a champion, I'll have to ask my mom, but every year he would make it to state for adaptive bowling, and it was at the same place that it was this year, and my two older kids went um to watch our bowlers. They are friends with some of the um students on the team, the athletes on the team. So, it was a special kind of moment for us to see Fridley represented. Scholastic achievement awards night. Can we just pause on this picture? 69 students recognized and will be graduating with honors, high honors, our highest honors. That's crazy. In such an amazing way, right? 17 students earn the prestigious presidential award. Students with a 3.5 GPA or higher who also scored at or above um SAT and ACT uh benchmarks. Sorry, I just lost my spot here. >> [snorts] >> Um 80th percentile on ACT or SAT. Then we had 11 IB International Baccalaureate Diploma candidates have or will complete their rigorous IB Diploma Program requirements. As a reminder, 6 DP courses and exams, theory of knowledge, a 4,000 word extended essay. I think some of our board members may have taught this or highly familiar with this, as well as um a 4,000 word extended essay and creativity, activity, and service experiences. When I was at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, uh a large high school in Maryland, which is one of the IB kind of powerhouses in the nation if not internationally. I'm a first grade teacher by trade and most students and staff there thought that I taught TOK or theory of knowledge and I let them believe that. >> [snorts] >> Cuz that is like such a high compliment. Teaching first graders, too. An additional 12 students were recognized [clears throat] as IB scholars for completing at least four DP courses and exams. How many scholarships were given out that night? $175,000. Thank you to our community supporters for that and thank you for everyone who supports our post-secondary options for our students. Also part of the evening was recognition of students receiving our most valuable senior awards for activities, the Athena Award, Triple A Awards, Senior Hall of Fame Awards, Trifecta Awards, Character Awards, and Tiger for Life Awards. Very proud. This is the mixed emotion part, right? Where we get to have all these celebrations that also foreshadow some goodbyes. So, next up foreshadowing here our goodbye is saying goodbye to our student school board member Ayana. Ayana, we are so proud of you. I didn't even realize that my daughter was here who you have been an amazing big sister to. She came to celebrate you. We are so proud of you in every way. We also are so proud of all of your achievements in going to University of San Francisco with amazing amounts of scholarship that you earned. So, I'm going to embarrass you a little more. I'm going to make you come up front and I'm going to love up on you. >> [applause] >> And you have to wear this >> [laughter] >> for the rest of the meeting. But I don't have any ice cream for you. So, we are so proud of you. We're going to get a picture. Oh my gosh, this is everything. She's made us wear those two, Iona, so don't You're You're [laughter] part of the group now. >> [laughter] [applause] [laughter] [snorts] >> Are you bringing this to college? Yeah, the answer here would be yes. Probably. Absolutely. I'm going to wear this as one of my CORDS FOR GRADUATION. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> SO PROUD OF YOU, MY DEAR. >> [applause] >> OKAY. SO, UM this slide was in here before public comment, and I'm glad that it's in here. So, we have um >> [sighs] >> a big deal. AVID reached out to our school system and asked for me and two teachers to be flown to Sacramento to present to the AVID board. Yep. So, I am so proud of this. It's all about featuring the innovative work that we've done. As I think you might recall, Philly public schools is the first pilot in the um AVID for new educators program that has now piloted nationally because of our work. This meeting or excuse me, this board meeting for Avid is the morning of June 17th. Getting to Sacramento is not the easiest. So, I will be there in time to be on the 5:30 work session virtually. I will be virtually as I was in March on the public comment and that virtually and then I will be presenting at the board or board business meeting at 7:30 virtually as I was in March. I would like to also address April. Um Lori who does all the amazing work around our board meeting had a sudden and very sad family moment um regarding her uh mother-in-law um and she had to leave right at 4:00. She got the notice. And the way that I rely on Lori who is very organized, I did not know that she had already pre-packed for me the um public comments as I had stated when I left. I am going to try to print the public comments. Then a staff member stopped me who is frankly very upset about some of the comments that were made and was crying in the hallway. Um so, I was actually in the hallway hearing the public comments but helping a staff member. So, I wanted to be very transparent about that I will be here for all components of the board meetings on June 16th but in Sacramento also. First of all, it's great to celebrate all the innovation that we do with Avid. The second piece that I will state, Avid is paying all expenses obviously as they should. Thirdly, it's fiscally beneficial for our district. Yep. And when your superintendent gets asked to go to things for Lavinia and Avid and other places, they fiscally reduce contract prices for the district. So, any questions on that board? No, thank you for that work, Dr. Lewis. Yeah. And and the other thing too that I would point out, like traveling's not fun. I hate it. And with three children. >> You're You're away from your family, so from from our I I think I speak for the board, from our perspective, we appreciate you making those sacrifices that directly impact our bottom line. Thank you. And that's something that we you really can't put a number on, so thank you for making those um sacrifices. Thank you, Chair. Now, um I will move into almost the last portion of the superintendent update. Um we have the Northeast Metro update with Vice Chair Jones. Northwest Suburban, maybe you want to talk about kind of the selection process at a broad level. And then um AMSD, frankly, I was at that meeting. Not a lot unless you have something, Chair, on that one. It was just the legislative stuff, which is outdated now. And then um SAF, which we kind of already talked about too, and that meeting's on Friday. So, with that board, I'll let you just determine, but Vice Chair Jones, if you want to start. >> Yep. Okay. Okay. Um for 916, we had at our last meeting a presentation of their teacher apprentice program. Um the four intermediate districts are partnering together with the Department of Labor and Industry um and the Minnesota State University, Mankato, with BrightWorks also as their sponsor. Um and we learned from We met one of our apprentices and one of our journey worker teachers um to see the completion of that two-year cohort of I think they um graduated seven new teachers um that had been uh paraprofessionals within the district and then became um licensed teachers through this apprenticeship program. So, that was a huge celebration. We at 916 had the first reading of our 27 fiscal year budget. Um we recognized teachers for their years of service within the 916 district. We had policy readings around several of our policies, approved several policies that had been presented for first readings and then adopted policies that had small modifications to them. Um And then we approved the strategic action items for next school year, the 2026-2027 school year, and approved contracts for services um within the 13 member districts. One of them was for the Avanti Center in Spring Lake Park District. One of them was for Aries Clinic to provide educational services there. We approved the contract with the city of Fridley and the police department for an SRO at Metro Heights. And we approved the first food service agreement additionally. That's all. Anything more? On Northwest Suburban? No. Okay. All the good stuff will be happening next next week. Yes, sounds perfect. Chair, if you don't mind, I did want to update on something from AMSD. So, there's something going on right now that worked it way its way through effective Sunday night called the School Land Trust. And that's now going to a vote of all Minnesotans in the November election. What that essentially does is provides districts, and please give me some grace here board. I believe it to be $27 per student that doesn't impact taxpayers at all. I just needed double check that run um, because I I just need to double check that run and I'm going to leave it at that. Um, so if the voters vote no or leave it blank, a blank is a no, um, and then a yes is a yes. So I think we're going to let my my guidance here is let our associations lead that and then we follow and educate that out. I don't have any interest in our school system spending staff or district fiscal resources to design campaign items. I think that we can use what AMSD, MSBA, and, uh, MASA is likely going to put out. So that would be my proposal. As usual with all of these, uh, legislative items, I will keep you I'll keep closely attuned, um, but for now I feel like that's the approach I'm going to recommend to the board. $27 a student is a helper >> [snorts] >> gives us like little south of 80,000 per school year. Um, that's just simply the the percent, um, that's actually Senator Kounish's, um, amazing work there for us. Um, it does create sus- continued sustainability in that land trust fund. Um, what I will say that was not her, um, it was not her intent at all is as we move into the funding season and I already, um, for the next year's session, I already heard this, um, and it was directly stated to me as well by an elected official, not ours that rep us, um, that we need to remember when compensatory is reduced, in this case a million dollars, that that land trust could possibly happen, which is less than $80,000. So I want to be crystal clear with the school board. That's a helper, but stop moving the money around and pretending like it's new money when it's not. Dr. Lewis, could you um maybe discuss a little bit how the non-vote is a no vote on that? Like And I And I agree with this idea of not really pushing too much for this because the it's kind of going to be a surmountable ask to even get this pushed through. So, if a voter leaves it blank, it's an auto no count. It is not a non-count. It is a no count. Got you. Lots of education needs to be done on that. Thank you. But again, just want to remind a million dollars in compensatory reduction. Maybe 80K in land trust. Along with unemployment, which we support that is currently unfunded. Paid family medical leave act, which we support that is currently unfunded. State special ed reimbursement reduction in transportation by 5%. $250 million blue ribbon commission to cut special education funding cross subsidy reduction. Um so, love this land trust. It's not the solution in the broader picture and Senator Kounish was never intended on that piece. And I will be crystal clear as we continue in these legislative sessions and it will be a trying session next year. But we are here for it, aren't we? We are. Um upcoming events, F H S commencement, Roy Wilkins Auditorium, 5:00 p.m., June 5th. Oh my gosh, I I'm This is such a good preview. >> [laughter] >> Like, do you think you need to take it off before you go on stage? I'll just walk with it. I think it's perfect. Um so, please save the date. Board of totally optional, but um you can sign up to ride in our district vans. Look at how I sold that as a perk. Yeah, mhm. Front door service from the van. Yeah, so we're so excited with that. Uh board, I'll stand for any questions, otherwise this concludes my report. Thanks again. I know these are long with our fiscal updates and especially the legislative, the comp ed, all of the things tonight. So, thank you for your patience. Well, thank you. Any questions from the board? No. All right. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Uh so, moving on to our business action items, um I would move on or accept a motion for resolution to terminate and non-renew it the teaching contract of certain non-tenured probationary teachers for 2025 and 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Uh so, I'm sorry. Motion made by Anna, second by Jones. Uh roll call vote. Miss Anna. I. Miss Jones. I. Mr. Carnapazi. Miss Shriner. I. Miss Yang. I. Miss Shobe. I. Mr. Ba. I. Motion passes. Next up, we have I would entertain a motion for the second reading and adoption of policies, specifically policy 305, which is a policy implementation, and policy 306, which is the school administrator code of ethics. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Anna. Me. Yep. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Shriner. Um all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Uh the next up, we have I would entertain a motion for a first reading first reading and adoption of policy, policy 722, public and data subject requests. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Yang. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Jones. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Um lastly, um I would entertain a motion for our consent agenda, which includes a training session special meeting held on May 5th, new contracts, amendments, leaves of absence, resignations, retirements, and terminations, and the statement of insurances for school year 2027, which is application for special education funds. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Anna. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Schriner. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Um a couple important dates that we have coming up. Um we have the Furr High School Pops concert at uh the high school district auditorium on May 20th at 7:00. We have our Furr High School Choir Pops concert on the next day, May 21st at 7:00, also at the auditorium. District holidays on Monday, May 25th. We have our graduation, as Dr. Lewis had mentioned, at Roy Wilkins uh with special van service for board members on June 5th at 5:00. Last day of school this will be amended now to June This is right? So you assumed that this was going to pass. Lori, you're on it. Last day of [clears throat] school for pre-K to grade 11 is June 8th, uh obviously of this year, and our next school board meeting will be on June 16th um here at the Furr Community Center with the 5:30 work session, 7:00 public comment, and the 7:30 business meeting. Did I miss any dates? I'm ready. Cool. Um I I would just ask for a a bit of indulgence. I know we've been here for a while, but since this is going to be our last meeting before the end of the school year, I just want to on behalf of myself, I think I can speak for the board, just thank our educators, our staff, our administrators, our superintendent, our assistant superintendent, Lori. Um the things that we're doing are are clearly paying off, right? The scholastic achievement awards, 69 students out of what's our graduating about 200 roughly? That's a pretty significant amount of students that are being recognized for a high level of accomplishments. I honest [snorts] killing it. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> No pressure by the way Malik. >> [laughter] >> We expect like seven figure scholarships. All right. >> [clears throat] >> The the fast for challenge that we were number one in the state of Minnesota out of 100 schools preparing children for college and careers. That is fantastic and from what I understand this is like our third year in a row. Dr. Cochran's We got second place last year. We got first place the year before. Got you. Yep. So I I but I think just an indication of what we are doing to get our kids ready post um high school and then our graduation rates that we've talked about. Where we are better than the state average. We are we are doing significantly better in a lot of classes and specific areas than our districts that are around us. So um this work cannot be done without our staff. So on behalf of the board I just want to thank everybody. Please rest the summer. Get some breaks. Have some fun. Right? And I just know that we really appreciate all of you. Oh. Oh. Senator's back. Yeah. I just wanted to let you know in case you didn't know this. Uh we passed uh I passed a piece of legislation that creates a constitutional amendment. And basically what that constitutional amendment does is it opens up the school trust fund. And we are going to be able to um do better, modernize the way those dollars are being invested to get a better return on investment. But what we're also doing is raising the uh per pupil amount from 2% to 4.5%. So that will basically be somewhere around $54 increase uh per student starting uh, next year. And so, I just uh, because it's a constitutional amendment, that question is going to be on the ballot in November. And um, we really need folks to do is to educate the voting public around um, understanding what the question will be. And I don't know remember it off the top of my head, but in the question it says, this will happen at no cost to the taxpayers, no levies, no referendum. This is This is money that will be um, uh, put into your general fund, and the school district can decide how to use it the way they've always used um, school trust funds. So, it should be about uh, moving from approximately $74 to around $121 per student, and hopefully that will help alleviate some of the some of the pain of the uh, the lack of funding for our for our education, but um, I just wanted to bring that up with you because we'll we're going to put together a statewide campaign, but we'll need everybody to educate everyone around how important it is that you circle you fill in that yes box because >> Check that box. box blank, then it counts as a As a no vote, right? Yeah. So, just wanted to bring that up, too. Awesome. Thank you. Because she just she just covered that like 5 minutes ago. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. smart, but I was told it was 27 bucks. So, your 54 and I told them that you're the author in this. Your 54 helps more. Your 54 helps us more. We'll take it. We'll take it. >> I'm looking up under every rock. I am so We know that about you. Yeah. Yeah. >> [snorts] >> You know, we are your amazing work. Have a great night. >> So, we just real quick before you adjourn, I'm going to do that run on that then. 54 is a nice surprise. Um So, 54 on that is going to give us $145,692, roughly. Hey, we'll take it. 100%. Yeah. Okay, thanks, Sheriff, for that. No, not at all. And thanks for the indulgence. Uh so, with that, um I would certainly entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion by Shriner. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Anna. All those in favor, please signify by saying "Aye." Aye. All those opposed? We are adjourned at 8:37. Thank you, everybody.